GoAffPro

The holiday season is a goldmine for retailers, buzzing with consumer excitement and gift buying. For ecommerce sites, it’s the perfect time to skyrocket sales. But to really stand out in a sea of options, you need more than just the usual marketing tricks. 

Enter affiliate marketing for ecommerce — your secret weapon to shine during the holiday rush. It’s a powerful strategy to widen your reach, boost your brand, and ramp up sales in this high-stakes season.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro at ecommerce or looking to learn the ropes, mastering affiliate marketing can help you capture a piece of the holiday shopping frenzy. 

In this article, we’ll dive into the top five affiliate marketing tactics to boost your holiday sales and set your ecommerce store up for future success.

5 best practices to increase sales with affiliate marketing this holiday season

With the industry expected to reach a staggering $8.95 billion, as reported by Influencer Marketing Hub, it’s clear that this strategy plays a pivotal role in closing sales. 

Remarkably, the retail sector alone has seen a revenue boost of 44% through affiliate marketing.

This holiday season, you, too, can harness the power of affiliate marketing to scale up your ecommerce sales. Here are five savvy strategies to get you started. 

1. Link arms with popular blogs in your niche

One of the most effective tactics is collaborating with popular blogs within your niche. 

These blogs often have substantial organic traffic and effective lead magnets in place, which means a ready audience to purchase your products. When you partner with them, you can tap into their audience base, driving more traffic (and sales) to your site. 

In return, these blogs earn a commission for each sale made through their referral, creating a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Take, for example, the partnership between Wayfair and Home & Jet. 

Wayfair, a giant in home goods, leveraged Home & Jet’s strong online presence and dedicated reader base to generate an additional $60,000 in revenue over seven months.

By featuring their products on Home & Jet, Wayfair gained access to a wider audience, specifically those interested in home décor and furnishings like round dining tables and floating bed frames. 

This partnership also benefits Home & Jet by offering their readers direct access to a broad range of quality home goods.

Pro tip: Remind your blog partners that they’re required to add affiliate disclosures to their blog posts to remain compliant with FTC regulations. Here’s a simple example. 

2. Leverage email marketing

Another powerful tool in your affiliate marketing arsenal is email marketing. It’s all about reaching the right people with the right message at the right time.

Start by creating a segmented email list that includes both your existing customers and potential leads interested in your products. 

For instance, you can tailor your emails to showcase products that align with their past browsing or purchasing history, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

Next, collaborate with your affiliates to craft compelling email campaigns. These affiliates can include unique discount codes or special offers in their emails. 

Here’s a great example from The Daileigh that’s created a holiday party wardrobe guide with affiliate links to LOFT.

You can link each item with a unique affiliate code, making it easy to track sales originating from your emails.

This tactical approach drives sales and enhances the shopping experience by offering personalized recommendations straight to the inbox. 

If you want your campaign to reach an even wider audience, you should consider localizing your email marketing content.   

3. Run giveaways and contests

Giveaways or holiday contests are a great tool to stand out during the peak holiday season. 

Who doesn’t love the opportunity to win something for free? This theory holds especially true during the expensive holiday months.

The process is simple. You put up your best-selling products in the giveaway with an influencer, share detailed giveaway guidelines, and capture more people’s attention (even those who aren’t following you).

For inspiration, look at this example by The Washi Tape Shop. In the giveaway, the brand partners with an influencer and gives away stationary products. 

Running the giveaway through a social media influencer is a great way to get more traction on the product and the affiliate’s social media profile. 

Running giveaways or holiday contests are a great tool to stand out during the peak holiday season.

So, when the affiliate’s social media profile gets more attention, people will likely use their other affiliate links and purchase more of your product. Sounds idyllic, right?

4. Offer discounts and coupons

The holiday season is the best time for an ecommerce affiliate marketer to boost affiliate sales. Consumers are willing to spend more on their favorite brands and products to benefit from the lucrative holiday deals. 

So, for the best outcome, consider offering limited-time discounts and coupons to your affiliate partners to share with eager consumers to motivate holiday purchases.

Discounts are effective for increasing sales. Some of the commonly used discounts include:  

• Buy one, get one
• Percentage
• Fixed price
• Bundle

Or, you can even take a page out of Homary’s book and encourage partners that the more they sell, the higher the affiliate commission they can earn. 

5. Participate in niche communities

If you decided to advertise a home decor item in a tech-savvy group, would they be interested in buying it, given their focus on technology-related matters? It’s unlikely. 

So, look for a few niche communities relevant to your products on Facebook and Slack. Participate in discussions, share your learnings, and provide value to ‌community members. 

Take YUPLAY, for example. It’s a hub for gaming enthusiasts where carefully placed affiliate links can drive traffic to your gaming gear or accessories store.

By aligning with such specific communities, you ensure that your products are seen by eyes already interested and primed to purchase. 

Remember, it’s not just about scattering your links across the web but planting them where they’ll grow your sales.

Wrapping up

The holiday season brings heavy competition in the market. But it can also be a goldmine for an ecommerce store like yours if you tap into affiliate marketing.

Why? Unlike ads, you only pay a commission when a sale is made. So, say hello to a better bottom line this holiday season.